Bought a Cannondale T800 not long ago. Very happy with it thus far. Wasn't hard to track down. Some of the others that I was trying to look at based on reccomendations here were a little harder to find though.

I actually have a Cannondale T2000, bought late last year. There is a lot I like about it, not least the lovely Ultegra and the DH rims, but the frame is not a good fit for me. I also notice a very big difference in harshness compared with my steel road bike, so I am probably going to flog the Cannondale.

wongaga wrote:Budget is sort of open - still dithering between a reasonable SH frame to swap exisitng some bits onto, or new custom frame. Surly is also an option.

I'd like to get a SH frame to experiment on set-up wise though before I plough $$$'s into a custom.

The first proper touring frame that I had was made from 531 and I bought it in London. It seemed ok at the time as I didn't know any better.
I met another Aussie in Innsbruck who also has a frame made from the same tubing but had been made for him by Clarence Street Cyclery's Geoff Scott. Geoff Scott had made the frame as this guy was big 6'4" and had broken 2 of the standard off the shelf frames.
His bike was just so much better in the way it rode and handled it was unbelievable. Nice and stiff, complaint over the bumps and didn't even notice a full load of panniers.

Just make sure you have your size exact before you start shopping.

Big guys that ride the Canondale tours love them, if your light then they give a hard ride.

Most of the steel tourers out there seem to have already been mentioned, i.e. Surly LHT, Trek 520, Fuji Touring, but I noticed in an ad recently that Vivente have introduced a steel tourer into their lineup too, the World Radonneur. No idea on the price but it seems pretty well equipped for serious touring with front and rear Tubus pannier racks, Shimano dynamo hub and Lumotec LED front light as standard.

Edit: Price of the World Randonneur seems to be around $1750, not bad considering all the bits and pieces included as standard.

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